Coffee for the soul
by Jadzia Bear
Summary: In a world where fate chooses your true love for you, barista Darcy has a crush on one of her customers. For the darcyland February challenge. Coffeeshop AU soulmate AU. Darcy/Jemma. Fluff.


**AN:** Written for the February challenge (Cheesy Tropes and Rare Pairs) on fuckyearhdarcylewis on tumblr. The trope is coffeeshop AU, but I threw in the soulmate trope too for good measure ;)

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Rainy days are always quiet. Darcy looks out over the heads of the handful of patrons in the cosy, warm coffee shop to the street outside. That's got to be a whole monsoon worth of rain out there. The cars are crawling carefully through the downpour and there's hardly a soul on the streets.

A figure with an umbrella catches Darcy's eye and her hand whips out to smack Trip's arm—probably not the smartest move when he's frothing hot milk, but no one gets third degree burns so it's fine.

"Look, it's my girlfriend!" Darcy hisses. She clutches at her heart. "Red galoshes! Baby, could you get any cuter?" she says wistfully.

Trip follows her gaze out the window. "Pretty sure you gotta ask her out first before you're allowed to call her things like that," he says, mouth quirking.

"And I think today might just be the day," Darcy says thoughtfully as the cheerful regular—Jemma—ducks out of the rain and into their store. She tries to close her umbrella, but doesn't have much luck. The contraption is on its last legs, several of the arms broken or bent by the wind. As a result the poor girl is dripping wet.

Darcy grabs a couple of fresh dishtowels off the pile. "I'm going in."

"Go, girl," Trip murmurs in encouragement.

Jemma is just hanging up her coat as Darcy reaches her.

"Here you go, hon," Darcy says, passing her one of the cloths with a smile.

"Oh, thank you, Darcy!" Jemma smiles gratefully.

Darcy's heart does a little skip. She's not wearing her name badge today, so Jemma must have paid attention to her name on previous visits.

Jemma blots carefully at her face, trying not to smear her make-up. "I must look a sight."

"Prettiest drowned rat I ever saw," Darcy grins as she smoothes the second cloth over Jemma's ponytail. Jemma's resulting smile and blush are nothing short of adorable.

Darcy notices the trails left by a few drops that made their way down the back of her neck and under her collar, which must feel horrible. As she wipes them away she spots the iridescent peacock blue of Jemma's soulmark. The curve she can see looks just like the top of her own mark, and before she can really think about what she's doing, she gently lifts Jemma's collar away from her neck to see the rest of the design.

Tingles shoot across Darcy's skin. She feels like her heart is beating both slow and fast at the same time.

"Holy crap, Jemma."

Darcy turns around and lifts her hair away from her neck to reveal her own identical mark, a spiral sweeping up from the centre of a diamond. She feels a cool finger trace the shape.

"Oh my," comes the breathy reply. When Darcy turns back around Jemma's eyes are wide, but the surprised 'o' of her mouth is already transforming into a smile.

Darcy throws her arms around Jemma in an enthusiastic hug. Jemma laughs and hugs her back.

Darcy turns towards the counter. "Trip! Soulmate!" she shouts across the store, pointing at Jemma.

Trip is shaking his head in disbelief, because apparently he's been watching the whole thing unfold. There are fond smiles and a smattering of applause from the coffee-drinking patrons, and sweet little Jemma is blushing again.

"Do you have time to sit?" she asks, self-consciously running a hand over her hair.

"You bet I do," Darcy replies.

They spend the next hour curled up on a couch in the corner together, sharing their life stories as Trip brings them hot beverages.

Finally, Jemma looks out the window to where the rain has slowed to a fine drizzle. "I really should be getting back to work," she says with a sigh.

"Yeah, me too," Darcy says, reluctantly unlacing their fingers. Jemma has never been with a girl before so they're taking it slow, but it's gratifying to see the way Jemma's eyes linger on her lips for a moment like she's contemplating a kiss.

_Not yet, beautiful, I'm going to wait until you're good and ready,_ Darcy thinks.

They exchange cell numbers and emails and make plans to meet for dinner after work, then Jemma hugs her warmly and disappears back out into the grey day.

Trip grins shamelessly as Darcy returns to the counter. "Damn, girl, when you set your sights on someone, you don't mess around!"

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**AN:** Thank you so much for reading such a rare pair, I really appreciate it!


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